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Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Celebrating shapes with Myntra

"I need to drop a few sizes by December." "This isn't my size, I'm an Extra extra small." "Let's go shop in the side of the store that stocks bigger sizes." I've heard these comments far too often because as a part of our innate psychic, we tend to make all debates about weight, body shape, etc about the size. What we tend to forget is that size is only one aspect of it and the other happens to be your body shape. Most women in the Indian subcontinent want to shop for clothes based on the 'fit' of the clothing and what we don't realise is that a fit has as much to do with a body shape as it does with the size. For instance, I have a pear shaped body and I tend to gravitate towards clothes that accentuate my petite top and décolletage as opposed to emphasising on a larger bottom and thighs. Even when I wear pencil skirts, I tend to balance out the proportions by wearing something a little boxy or billowy at the top. As a fashion blogger, I feel a sense of responsibility to educate my readers about different things you can do to accentuate different body shapes. Because losing weight to get fitter and healthier is good but dropping sizes by starving yourself with an obscure dream of changing your body shape, is not. It's almost disheartening how we all dream of being a body shape that isn't ours. While you can drop a size or two, you cannot change your body shape and maybe it is time to celebrate that as we celebrate the myriad sizes that exist. As a part of a really interesting initiative by myntra, women across the country can now shop according to their shapes, not just their sizes. They are ushering in this cool feature by the concept of Shape ID- the ratio of bust:waist:hips (4:2:4, 3:2:4, 4:4:3, 3:3:3) that mirrors the shapes Hourglass, Pear, Apple, Rectangle and spans across sizes. This not just helps you discover your body shape, it helps you browse through pieces that are most likely to flatter your body shape. I find this commendable on two levels: a) You are sending out a message to your shoppers (a lot of whom happen to be of an impressionable age) that you are celebrating all body shapes b) You are aiding a lot of shoppers who shy away from online shopping make more informed choices online. Take a cue from some of India's most popular bloggers as they work these outfits based on their very different body shapes. Nitika of The Shopaholic Diaries, Pallavi of ModaNinja, Shaily of Confessions of a Closet, Sonaksha of The Sonshu, Anshita of Vanity No Apologies.

Get the Myntra app and try their shop by shape feature to experience the different recommendations made by them based on your body shape. For example, for a body type like mine which is Shape ID 3:2:4 (pear-shaped), Myntra recommends you wear ruffled tops, puff sleeves, embellished necklines, double-breasted jackets, among others that accentuate your elegant shoulder-line and move attention to your upper-body.Leaving you with a penny for my thoughts. Think about the emphasis that is laid on celebrating and appreciating the different interests of every human being. We rejoice at the fact that not everyone aims to be a Doctor or an Engineer anymore and we are steering towards creating a place for every kind of passion and interest. If that was to apply to physical attributes, would it not be in place to make space for all shapes and not hold one higher up in the hierarchy? Maybe this initiative by Myntra is one step closer to ridding the society of this anathema?x